Lorn
LornNone An Island

We could speak of sensations. Good and bad sensations, for example. The album debut of Marcos Ortega, the young beatmaker who also answers to the pseudonym Lorn, would be part of the latter, not because “Nothing Else” (Brainfeeder, 2010) is a bad record ( au contraire) but because behind those film noir atmospheres and complex rhythms, creeping, like a snake, an unnerving shadow was cut out. It was a gothic record, lit only by the moon, and not really the right album for people who are easily scared or are introspective: its textures and a pacemaker wouldn’t be the best association of concepts in this case. “None An Island” however, leaves good sensations, because it’s a collection of less twisted songs. The dark tone is still there, but this time Lorn is aspiring to rhythms that can be seen beyond the turbid atmosphere. The memory of “Nothing Else” is like a nightmare of which you only remember the atmosphere, not the action. Of this EP however, we will remember that, whatever happens in this dream, it wasn’t bad nor did it end with any physical harm or violent attack. The four cuts, all of them short (making for a little under fifteen minutes in total) and featuring a collaboration with Samiyam ( “Brainwaves”), point towards good things: it’s more orthodox, more direct, but in no way a record that gets on one’s nerves. From the LP we find “None An Island (Radio Edit)”, which even has an Atlanta hip-hop beat, but the rest is new: “Until There Is No End” sounds like sunny early morning music and “Never Enough” is touching psychedelic territory. Black becomes Lorn more, it has to be said, but this intense blue isn’t half bad, either. Claude T. Hill